Mystical Experience in the Spectrum of Altered States of Consciousness: Overlapping Discourses of Theology and Secular Sciences

Duplinskaya Yuliya Mikhailovna ORCID: 0000-0002-1990-6828 Doctor of Philosophy Professor, Department of philosophy, sociology, culturology, Yuri Gagarin State Technical University of Saratov 77 Politechnicheskaya str., Saratov, 410054, Russia, Saratov region duplinu@mail.ru

Shugurov Mark Vladimirovich ORCID: 0000-0003-3604-3961 Doctor of Philosophy Professor, Department of philosophy, Saratov state law academy 410028, Russia, Saratov region, Saratov, Volskaya str., 1, office 621 shugurovs@mail.ru

The research was carried out with the financial support of the RFBR in the framework of the scientific project No. 21-011-44095 ("Diversity of theological, philosophical and scientific approaches to understanding the phenomenon of Christian religious and mystical experience: horizons and limits of interdisciplinary synthesis")

IntroductionOne of the results of the development of religious studies based on the improvement of their methodological base and the expansion of the subject area was the transformation of mystical experience in general and religious-mystical experience in particular into a stable subject of scientific knowledge ^[1].

Representatives of such sciences as psychology of religion ^{[2; 3]}; psychiatry ^[4-6]; philosophy of religion ^{[7; 8]}; cultural studies ^[9-12]; religious studies ^[13-15] have addressed and continue to address the problems of the nature and diverse forms of mystical experience. Recently, a colossal space of his research has emerged from the point of view of neurobiology ^{[16; 17]}. There is a dynamic formation of new directions. Discussion of this kind of spiritual experience, as well as scientific reflection of approaches and programs for its study are reflected on the pages of authoritative Russian journals – "Philosophy and Culture" ^[18], "Questions of Philosophy" ^[19], "Religious Studies" ^[20], etc. The analysis of the achieved results and research paradigms, for example, universalism and constructivism, made up the content of individual monographic studies ^[21].

This kind of "tsunami" of cognitive efforts is caused by several reasons. Firstly, mystical experience is a phenomenon of spiritual culture. Therefore, it is directly related to the sphere of human values and meanings. Secondly, in the context of the implementation of the paradigm of post-secular society, information about this category of human experience has gone beyond the boundaries of religious communities into the space of scientific, disciplinary and interdisciplinary space. This made it possible to supplement the reflection of mystical experience on the part of its subjects with a system of scientific ideas about its nature, phenomenological diversity, typology, purpose, etc.

The very subject of mystical experience, filled with an unusually rich palette of mystical feelings, symbols and images reflecting transcendence in various "higher realities", is often argumentatively rejected by strict science as something impossible and non-existent.  However, no one will deny the very existence of mystically gifted people and their characteristic experience of specific psychological experiences. This is an indisputable scientific fact that requires scientific understanding. This can explain the discussion of the phenomenology of this experience on the pages of scientific articles and monographs. All of this can in no way be regarded as a presentation under the cover of scientific publications of some views that do not meet the criteria of scientific character. Indeed, the strength of science lies in its rationality, but science will show its weakness if it only mechanically positions itself as a "guardian" of the boundaries and limits of "strict scientific", avoiding the transformation of the same altered states of consciousness into the subject of its study. From our point of view, such an approach can lead to a reduction of ideas about the entire wealth of a person's spiritual and psychological experience.

As it is quite correctly noted in the literature, religion has a psychological and cognitive dimension that "must be studied, unless, of course, we assume that religious people have a special "religious brain" and special "religious organs" that exist in a special, inaccessible to science religious world" ^{[22, p. 89]}. Of course, in this case we can talk about a different mode of mental processes, which also take place in the case of non-religious and quasi-religious mysticism, in contrast to the work of normal, and, in fact, ordinary "waking" consciousness. And if so, then this experience should be explained, interpreted and, of course, understood on the basis of the efforts of both the humanities and natural sciences, and not only in a specially disciplinary space, but also within the framework of interdisciplinary interaction. It is along this path that modern philosophers are articulating the problem of interpreting the mystical experience characteristic of new religious movements (NSD) ^[23]. And it is quite difficult to interpret the mystical experiences peculiar to NSD. And it's not only the poverty of their artistic and figurative component, but also because of their non-attachment to religious institutions and traditions, when in the end "each individual creates his own "personal religious constructor"" ^{[24, p. 85]}.

However, it should be recognized that in the multidisciplinary space of the study of mystical experience, due to various scientific and disciplinary discourses and approaches, there is an understandable conflict of interpretations of the essence of mystical experiences. There is a particular tension between approaches to the religious-mystical experience. The fact is that a significant array of diverse mystical experience is a component of religion and a special dimension of religious experience. And the content of religious faith has always had and continues to have a fundamental character.  

Of course, if you imagine the figure of an impartial religious scholar, then the types of mysticism are religious and non-religious, as well as various trends within these types, say, the mysticism of polytheistic and monotheistic religions, as well as the varieties of mystical traditions inherent in them, not to mention the amalgam of esoteric and occult mysticism, as well as the mystical phenomena of the so-called new religious consciousness, equally interesting and self-significant. From the thesis that for scientific religious studies all kinds of religious, as well as related mystical experiences are equivalent as manifestations of religious consciousness and nothing more, it can be concluded that these varieties should simply be studied, guided by research preferences. Thus, the differences in mystical experience can be reduced solely to the content of their phenomenological architectonics. Indeed, such an approach is presented within the framework of comparative studies ^{[25; 26]} and can be supported by the paradigm of universalism, striving to fix the invariant mystical archetype ^[27].In essence, the differences, as the alternative approach – constructivism, in turn, says, are determined by cultural and religious traditions that determine the content of this experience and its interpretation. Thus, one cannot say that one type of mysticism is preferable to another: they are simply different.

But not everything is so simple when mystical experience is in the field of attention of theology, and even more so of religious dogmatics. The fact is that secular scientific religious studies, which began to form back in the XIX century, was largely based on the installation of the possibility of studying religious consciousness as such, regardless of the solution of the question of the beingness of the objectivity (supernatural phenomena) that are experienced and refracted in it. The concept of U. James is an example of that. However, religious studies can be not only secular, but also religious and, moreover, related to theology. Within its framework, the beingness of objects of religious and mystical experience is by no means taken "out of brackets". This is what creates a tense field of discussion, outside of which the development of secular/scientific and theological religious studies is generally unthinkable.

Nevertheless, within the framework of theological discourse, the recognition of the ontological status and cognitive possibilities of religious-mystical experience is not absolute. Whole layers of religious and mystical experience are qualified as anomalies and are recognized as illegitimate, i.e. unrelated to the purpose of a particular religion. In turn, other varieties of mystical experience are legitimized. They not only have a moral meaning, but also a significant cognitive potential: this kind of experience complements Revelation. In other words, the mystical experience is regarded through the prism of "norm – deviation", which is further embodied in the ideas of ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical mysticism, as well as of ecclesiastical religious mysticism and extra-religious mysticism. This approach takes place in Christianity and is described in sufficient detail in the scientific literature ^[28]. Indeed, the ecstasy of the Doukhobors may be very interesting for an impartial religious scholar, but does it correlate with the truths of Christianity? Therefore, it is not possible to say that the religious mystical tradition is gullible and considers the subjective self-assessments of the bearers of religious-mystical experience as confirmation of the phenomenon of special and even "higher" levels of reality. All this extends to the situation when mystics insisted that they had learned something more important in their personal revelations compared to church dogma and authority.  

In addition to this, the approach that differentiates mystical experience is characteristic of religious philosophy, which expresses interest in this phenomenon. Within the framework of philosophical discourse, the use of the well-known categories of "authentic" and "inauthentic", characteristic of philosophical metaphysics and further applied to ecstasy as the culmination of mystical experience, comes into force. This kind of approach is quite traditional for Russian religious philosophy (N. Berdyaev, P. Florensky, I. Ilyin, S. Bulgakov, etc.). Academic religious studies refrains from using such categories due to its disciplinary discourse. But, let us note, it is hardly reasonable to exclude religious philosophy and religious-philosophical metaphysics from the vast multidisciplinary space of research on mysticism in general and religious-mystical experience in particular. Moreover, philosophical studies, which are sometimes positioned as philosophical mystical theology ^[29], not only postulate a vision of mysticism through the prism of "genuine – inauthentic", "true – false" and further "sound – morbid-pathological", but also substantiate such a vision, including with reference to psychology data religions and conclusions of psychiatry ^{[30, C. 73]}.

It should be noted that the value of philosophical reflection on various disciplinary approaches (while philosophy has its own disciplinary approach and a variety of concepts) also lies in the justification of the possibility of interdisciplinary dialogue and the possibility of interdisciplinary synthesis. The main opponents, in our opinion, are, on the one hand, the theological discourse, concretized in mystical theology. On the other hand, it is the psychology of altered states of consciousness as a relatively new scientific direction that arose within the framework of psychological science and included in its field of attention the phenomenon of mystical experiences as evidence of the so–called "higher realities". But here it is also necessary to take into account the fact that, being a branch of psychological science, the psychology of altered states of consciousness does not automatically follow a reductionist approach to mysticism, which means considering mystical experiences as just the reality of subjective experiences. The question of the limits of reduction is raised in a number of scientific papers ^[31]. 

Taking into account the above, the implementation of the comparison of the theological approach, including the one concretized in religious philosophy, and the approach peculiar to the psychology of altered states of consciousness to mystical experience differs with a significant degree of relevance. This can be justified by the fact that finding a common perspective in understanding mystical states can become one of the prerequisites for the transformation of a multidisciplinary research space into an interdisciplinary space in which interdisciplinary syntheses are possible while preserving the specifics of disciplinary discourses and theoretical approaches. Interdisciplinary synthesis makes it possible to form a more comprehensive view of mystical states and their differentiation. The key to realizing this possibility is the solution of the non-trivial task of detecting a single reference point and a common coordinate system when distinguishing between "genuine" and "inauthentic" modes of mystical experience. We will point out the results of psychiatric science, which have already become a scientific classic. In particular, D. Lukoff, relying on a phenomenological approach, identified behaviors that are characteristic of the sphere of religious and mystical experiences: mystical experience; psychosis; mystical experience with psychotic phenomena; psychosis with mystical features ^[32]. Consequently, it provides for the possibility of a mystical experience that does not intersect with the psychotic and psychopathological spheres.Israeli researchers D. Greenberg and E. Vitstum carried out an in-depth search for demarcation criteria between psychiatric phenomena, such as psychosis with mystical manifestations and mystical phenomena without psychosis ^[33]. All this allows us to see some points of disciplinary intersections, as well as the validity of interdisciplinary interaction.       

The purpose of the article is to carry out philosophical reflection on the possibility of distinguishing within the interdisciplinary space of theology, on the one hand, and psychology of altered states of consciousness, on the other, genuine mystical experience and various kinds of surrogate states of consciousness with quasi-mystical content. The paradigm of convergence of the discourses of the humanities and natural sciences, as well as theology, serves as a theoretical basis for solving this problem.

The methodological basis of the presented research included methods: analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization, as well as a comparison method. On the basis of the latter, the approaches of natural sciences and humanities, as well as theology, were compared to the content of altered states of consciousness from the point of view of their identification as mystical experience. This method has also been used as a tool for explicating the differences between genuine and inauthentic (surrogate) mystical experience in the context of comparing religious and non-religious types of mysticism. The system-structural approach was of great importance, which made it possible to create a holistic picture of the discursive field of interaction between various sciences that interpret the content of altered states of consciousness in different ways, having different mystical connotations. Finally, the authors used the hermeneutic method, which was aimed at deepening the understanding of the nature and purpose of genuine mystical experience as a starting point for determining the specifics of quasi-mystical altered states of consciousness.

The theoretical basis of the research is the paradigm of postsecular society, extended to the subject field of mystical experience research by various scientific disciplines, including such a specific discipline as theology. As A.A. Huseynov notes, "... on the one hand, science and a scientifically oriented (non-believing in the sense of Abrahamic religions) community, and on the other hand, religious worldview and confessional associations turn out to be equally legitimate, and, consequently, they must find a mode of co-existence that is characterized by mutual respect...." ^{[34, pp. 22-23]}. In relation to the subject of the proposed article, this means the need for conscious inclusion in the interdisciplinary dialogue of the theological discourse, as well as the religious philosophy associated with it with its characteristic worldview attitude to the consideration of mystical experience through the categorical prism of "genuine – inauthentic", which creates the opportunity for a critical analysis of the approach characteristic of the concept of psychology of altered states of consciousness.             

1. Mystical experience through the prism of discourses of theology and secular sciences1.1. The discursive field of theology.

Theology, on the one hand, and secular sciences, on the other, start from different points of reference and different points of "visibility" both in the understanding of the "authentic" (normal) and in the understanding of the "real". All this is directly deployed at the level of the theological approach to mystical experience ^{[35; 36]}, moreover, in the aspect of its comparison with altered states of consciousness in occult-mystical traditions ^[37]. In addition, the knowledge of this experience is unthinkable outside the context of mystical and religious doctrines. In their coordinates, there is a meaningful design of mystical experiences and self-reflection characteristic of them. The openness of scientific knowledge to this context creates conditions for the formation of an interdisciplinary dialogue with theology. Of course, theology, not without reason, contradicts mystical experience, which has either a confessional affiliation or a non-confessional character: mystical experience can be labeled as religious creativity, the results of which carry the risk of inconsistency with recognized dogmas. The case is aggravated by the problems associated with the interpretation of this experience due to the specifics of its language.    

Be that as it may, not only for theology, but also for every deep religious mystical tradition (mystical theology), a serious problem is the distinction between genuine mystical experience and various kinds of quasi-mystical surrogate states of consciousness. This distinction and the justification of its criteria form a special thematic subject field of theological and religious studies. Already at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. within the framework of numerous studies of domestic and foreign theologians, religious scholars, philosophers of religion and religious philosophers, an approach began to form, according to which a genuine religious-mystical experience is not a subjective psychological state, but mainly an ontological state. The latter is not reducible either to the field of psychological experiences or to the moral and semantic sphere of being a person. Proponents of the ontological approach express the position that mystical experiences are experiences of objectively existing transcendent reality ^{[38; 39]}.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that genuine mystical experience in the coordinates of theological discourse considered by us, being an event series of comprehension of Divine reality, is alien to psychological as well as ethical dimensions. The fact is that entering into a different, namely, a transformed state of human nature, means not only a change in the constituent components of human psychology, but also habitual religious morality. It is in this sense that one should take the statement of the elder Siluan of Athos that "holiness is not an ethical concept, but an ontological one" [Cit. according to: 40, C. 141]. Of course, not all saints were mystics, and not all mystics were saints. However, a genuine mystical experience that certifies the dogmas of faith is entering into the future state to which they indicate.

From the point of view of the theological approach, quasi-mystical surrogate states, having an external similarity with religious and mystical experience, nevertheless, are not associated with the transformation of the ontology of human nature, and remain only altered states of consciousness. As S. Lem believed, there are separate areas of the brain, the impact on which can cause psychological states of emotional exaltation, outwardly resembling mystical experiences ^{[41, C. 158]}. In his opinion, effective technologies will be created in the near future to stimulate this kind of exalted mystical experiences that will displace traditional religiosity. In addition, new, previously unknown phenomena appear in the spectrum of altered states of consciousness. They are still difficult to attribute to surrogate or genuine mystical states. At the same time, they differ from traditional forms of religious mysticism. However, it is clear enough that such forms of mystical experience are fully covered by the term "neo-mysticism".

For theological discourse, the starting point for which mystical states can be qualified as authentic or surrogate is the concept of the image of God in man. Considering the anthropological cross-section of theology, it is necessary to dwell on the question of what meaning Christian theology puts into this concept. And this question, as V. Lossky notes, is very, very non-trivial, because the God of the Old Testament (the One Who created man in His Own image and likeness) cannot be depicted. It follows from this that it is wrong to interpret the image of God in the spirit of the ancient eidos (), i.e. in the meaning of "kind", "appearance", because such an interpretation is, according to V. Lossky, "Hellenistic bias" ^{[42, p. 659]}. Christianity, in his opinion, presupposes a different concept of an image as something closely related to the title of a person ^{[42, p. 671]}. As a result, the image of God in man is a hypostatic, personal beginning.

It is also important to emphasize that such an interpretation of the image of God radically transforms the dichotomy between the "mind" ("nus") and the "body", which was traditionally characteristic of ancient thinking. V. Lossky notes that in Christian theology, not only the soul, but also the body is considered to be created in the image of God: the body, as and the soul participates in conformity to God. The image of God as a personal principle in a person refers to all human components, not excluding the "leather vestments". It is quite obvious that, in relation to the body, the image of God cannot be interpreted in the spirit of the ancient eidos as a visible or speculative appearance. Otherwise, there are a lot of provocative questions in the spirit of S. Lem. For example, is there any higher meaning in such aspects of the bodily appearance of anthropoids as a certain number of limbs, fingers, teeth, spinal bends, joints, etc.? However, it is obvious that the meaning of the Christian teaching that the soul, but also the body are created in the image of God, obviously lies in another. Namely, that the personal (hypostatic) principle, which is the image of God in man, is able to consolidate only in the union of soul and body. Being as a person requires the gathering of oneself, when the body can be compared to a kind of focusing lens, without which the scattering of light, understood as the energy of creation, takes place.

Thus, the out-of-body experience of altered states of consciousness (for example, in transpersonal psychology) opens up additional channels for obtaining information, but at the same time, from our point of view, a dispersion of the personal (hypostatic) principle in a person occurs. It is not by chance that the mystical-ascetic tradition of Orthodoxy unequivocally warns against attempts to take the mind beyond the body, where it supposedly improves "intelligent contemplation". St. Gregory Palamas regards such practices of out-of-body mystical contemplation as "the worst Hellenic seduction. According to his teaching, "for those who want to belong to themselves and become truly "monks" ("one") according to the inner man, it is necessary to introduce the mind into the body and restrain it there" ^{[43, p. 47]}.

Uniting soul and body in the theme of the image of God in man, Christian theology makes the following demarcation. The unity of soul and body differ, on the one hand, in the created, and on the other – in the created fallen human nature. After the fall, a person's body changes, compared to the one that was before the fall. According to St. Gregory the Theologian, "the flesh became heavy and became a corpse, and the soul became a corpse–bearer" ^{[44, p. 175]}. As the teacher believed. Maxim the Confessor, "leather vestments" caused the "dumbness of nature": passion, rudeness, mortality", birth in the image of "dumb cattle" ^{[44, p. 586]}. Sometimes this difference is marked as the difference between the concepts of "body" and "flesh": the body becomes flesh only after the fall. The flesh is thus interfaced with the "leather vestments", i.e., the dead chiton in which the soul was dressed after the fall. And yet. The body can be understood not only as a carnal biological organism, but also as a "soul body" and a "spiritual body". According to the teachings of the ap. Paul: "The spiritual body is sown, the spiritual body is raised up" (1 Corinthians: 44-45).

The transformation considered in more detail can be understood as a change in the relationship between spirit, soul and body. The idea of human nature assumed that the spirit should find food for itself in God, the soul in the spirit, and the body should have a source of life in the soul. But after falling away from God, this configuration changed the vector to the opposite. The spirit, no longer finding food in God, began to live the life of the soul – the so-called "spiritual values", which, in fact, are connected with the spiritual, but not with the spiritual slice of human existence. The soul, in turn, began to feed on the life of the body – passions, the source of which is the bodily slice of a human being. The body now finds its food in matter ^{[45, C. 209]}. It should be noted that the mystical-ascetic experience of Christianity is aimed not at liberation from the flesh (which was characteristic of Neoplatonic mysticism), but at restoring the former configuration between spirit, soul and body. This entails the transformation of the dense nature, which must be transformed into a "spiritual body" as our true body, different from the rough physicality of the "leather vestments" given by God to Adam and Eve after the fall ^{[45, p. 189]}.

All of the above makes it possible to outline a kind of coordinate system from which various forms of altered states of consciousness can be measured, which, claiming to be a kind of analogue of mystical experience, are in fact a surrogate and substitute for the latter. According to our point of view, in surrogate states, either the destruction or substitution of hypostatic, personal being as the image of God in man is committed.

1.2. The discursive field of psychology and cognitive sciences. Now let's compare this coordinate system with another one, namely, with the one that secular sciences build. Traditionally, psychological discourse in the definition of "norm" started from such a point of reference as perception in the mode of waking consciousness. The latter was associated with such an instance of mental life as the "I" (ego). The correlation of the "I" with the concept of "reality" is a kind of general principle of the European philosophical tradition from R. Descartes to Z. Freud. It would seem that there is a certain analogy with what we have identified earlier in the theological discourse. But how non-trivial is the correlation of the theological concept of "hypostasis" with the philosophical and psychological concept of "personality", we will show further.

It should be noted beforehand that the term "altered states of consciousness" itself was introduced in the middle of the twentieth century by Ch. Tarth ^[46], who in his writings developed a kind of multilevel concept of states of consciousness that differed from the classical scheme of contrasting consciousness and the unconscious. As a result, mystical states of consciousness, starting from the middle of the twentieth century, began to be considered within the framework of the theory of altered states of consciousness ^[47], the scope of which also included states arising from the use of narcotic drugs, meditative practices, hypnosis, as well as certain pathological conditions. However, the prototype of this approach can be found in the works of W. James, W. Ing and other representatives of the psychology of religion of the XIX–XX centuries, who expressed interest in a wide range of unusual states of consciousness.

Against the background of the allocation of psychophysiological criteria of altered states of consciousness, the problem arose of determining the internal content of the forms of experience of altered states of consciousness and its significance for the subject himself. In addition, questions about the criteria of differentiation of norm and pathology were updated. Against this background, the addition of a purely psychological and psychiatric approach with a value interpretation of mystical, as well as other states close to them, has become quite noticeable. This was the case in the humanistic psychology of A. Maslow, in which religious experience was considered as directly related to the peak states of self-actualization of the individual ^[48]. It is impossible not to point out the work of S. Grof within the framework of the subject field of transpersonal psychology, to the characteristics of which through the prism of the subject of our article we will turn in the following exposition. These researchers considered mystical states of consciousness as positive, which are a source of values and meanings. Thus, the approach to mysticism on the part of psychology has undergone changes – from pessimistic to moderately optimistic and even overly optimistic estimates. It was a kind of turning point in the approach to mystical experience, as well as a correction of the research position within the psychology of religion.

Due to the fact that we are interested in a certain array of mystique-like altered states of consciousness precisely as something surrogate, we emphasize once again that the spectrum of altered states of consciousness, along with psychopathy, mental disorders, also include states arising under the influence of drugs, LSD, hallucinogens, etc. These states also fall under the category of mystical experiences. But as a result, the mystical experience is considered in a number of deviations from the "normal" mode of the waking consciousness of the "I". However, gradually, through the joint efforts of post-metaphysical philosophy, cognitive sciences, and quantum physics, this frame of reference began to blur. The fact is that the concept of "reality", like the concept of "I", began to lose its clear contours.

If traditional epistemology saw in the process of cognition a reflection of reality, then modern cognitive sciences see in various forms of cognitive activity one of the ways to maintain the vital activity of the organism as a whole. However, the concept of an organism in this case is given an expansive meaning. A living organism is understood not only as a biological body, but also as any system whose functioning patterns meet certain criteria. For example, self-regulation and maintenance of homeostasis through feedback loops (N. Wiener); combination of operational closeness with energy openness (U. Ashby); the presence of an autopoiesis pattern in which the system "generates such components that participate in the chain of transformations that generates them" (U. Maturana, F. Varela) ^{[49, C. 40]}. The classical scheme of representation (reflection) is replaced by the ecology of the mind, models of homeostatic self-regulation of the system and the preservation of operational isolation as a distinctive feature of living systems.

One of the meta-narratives for a variety of disciplines, including the theory of cognition, is the ecological discourse, which today goes far beyond biology. The introduction of ecological discourse into the theory of cognition is analyzed in detail by E. Knyazeva. In particular, she comes to the conclusion that in the process of perception, we do not reflect reality as it really is, but rather construct a habitat for ourselves, like an ecological niche. The concept of ecological niche in cognitive science is complemented by the concept of cognitive niche. "Just as every living organism has its own ecological niche in the network of life, so every organism taken in the aspect of cognition ... chooses, actively adapts, creates its own cognitive niche for itself" ^{[50, p. 103]}. The cognitive niche of every being is the unique world in which he lives. This world may partially intersect or not intersect at all with the worlds of other beings living in the same territory, but in different cognitive niches.

Another meta-narrative is connected today with nonlinear dynamics – modern theories of self-organization and self-regulation of complex systems. The processes of perception, as well as cognitive processes in general, are considered here in a number of mechanisms for maintaining the homeostasis of a living system. In this aspect, cognitive activity begins to be compared with the body's immune system, whose task is not to find the truth, but to maintain the self-identity of the life world. This, as well as in the immune system, is carried out through a system of filters – thresholds or barriers that either prevent the invasion of alien elements, or find ways to embed them in the patterns of their own vital activity. So, in cognitive immunology, F. The neural and immune systems are interpreted as two interacting and mutually complementary cognitive systems, as well as as two brains in a continuous dialogue ^{[51, C. 302]}.

A similar concept was developed by O. Huxley, who states that "the function of the brain, nervous system and sense organs is mainly cleansing, not productive. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect against overflow and shock by a huge mass of excessive impressions, leaving "only that very small special sample that is likely to be practically useful" ^{[52, C. 19]}. Various kinds of failures in the effective functioning of the brain caused by factors such as, for example, illness, fatigue, fasting, near-death experiences, etc., do not generate hallucinations, but simply lead to a violation of the tightness of the protective mechanism, which allows certain classes of phenomena to enter consciousness, which are not allowed there with the "normal" functioning of the brain. According to O. Huxley, substances that traditionally belong to hallucinogens have a similar mechanism of action: mescaline, LSD. These do not stimulate some kind of "hallucinogenic activity" of the brain at all, but only block enzymes that contribute to feeding the brain with glucose, thereby bringing the perceptual apparatus into a state of passivity ^{[52, p. 21]}. As a result, the brain valve loses its tightness and begins to let into consciousness what was filtered out earlier.

In the light of these arguments, it is very difficult to demarcate between (1) hallucinations in altered states of consciousness and (2) the experience of genuine contact with another reality, from which we were previously protected by the filters of an effectively functioning "normal" perceptual apparatus. An important fact seems to be that W. James drew attention to in his famous study of the phenomena of religious experience. What people who have experienced religious experience come into contact with is felt as something incomparably more real than the most intense reality, as "much more real than objects of ordinary perceptions"; "if all other impressions turned out to be a dream, it alone would remain reality" ^{[53, pp. 60-61]}.

J. J. Baudrillard, who draws a parallel between the era of third-order simulacra and schizophrenic delirium, noted that schizophrenic disorder is characterized by no departure from the "real" world, but on the contrary, a traumatic hypertrophied and heightened perception of reality. "What characterizes him (i.e. schizophrenic) to the least degree is the loss of the real... everything is just the opposite, absolute closeness, total instantaneity of things, a sense of insecurity, lack of privacy" ^{[54, P. 63]}. Speculative reasoning of J. Baudrillard fits well into the phenomenological description of schizophrenic consciousness in the aforementioned study by O. Huxley.

As a consequence, it can be concluded that the so-called "normal" mode of functioning of the psyche in the spectrum of various altered states is not a state of stable equilibrium, but, in the language of nonlinear dynamics, a state of stable disequilibrium. Stable disequilibrium is sometimes illustrated by the image of a pendulum that has stopped not at the bottom of the trajectory (this is an illustration of stable equilibrium), but is held at the top point, balancing between opposite trajectories of disruption: either complete immersion in sleep, or a traumatic experience of unprotected contact with reality.

Summarizing what has been said, we can draw a curious analogy. The filters of the perceptual apparatus have functions similar to those of the skin. In this regard, perception and subsequent cognitive activity can be compared with additional shells of the body – a kind of "second skin" that protects us from direct contact with the outside world. The functions of the skin are, firstly, to create filters in relation to the external environment, which let something inside and prevent the penetration of the rest, and, secondly, to self-repair external damage.

It should be stated that we are surrounded by a whole series of similar filter shells and immersed in their functioning. As noted by Z. Freud, the perceptual apparatus comes from the ectoderm. Perception, like the skin, on the one hand, filters redundant information, and on the other hand, "patches" the gaps in our life world, completing external impressions with the help of apperception and imagination. It is important to note that in all this there is a continuation of the biblical theme of the "leather vestments" in which the soul was dressed after the fall. This, to some extent, allows us to sketch a single space and a common coordinate system with the discourse of theology.

1.3. The overlap of discourses of theology and secular sciences. Attempts to find a common space, on the one hand, the discourse of psychology and cognitive sciences, and on the other – the discourse of theology leads us to a preliminary conclusion. First of all, we note that it makes no sense to talk about any realities without first identifying the "point of visibility" from which the gaze, physical or mental, is focused on this reality. Dealing with the same subject of research, designated by identical terms (spirit, personality, psyche-soul, body, organism), theology and cognitive sciences see it, nevertheless, proceeding from different "points of view". Moreover, in the opposite focus of the gaze. The "normal" state of the psychosomatic composition of a person, which is the starting point in the first case (cognitive sciences and psychology), is considered in Christian anthropology as an abnormal state: as a result of a deep transformation that took place after falling away from God.

Now let's make a more radical generalization. Whenever an attempt is made to interpret the Christian religious-mystical experience through the prism of the conceptual apparatus of natural science – even with the most benevolent and, one might say, "politically correct" intentions on the part of the latter – a similar problem arises. All natural-scientific interpretations of the religious-mystical experience have one significant flaw, which, in our opinion, has not yet been articulated anywhere to a sufficient degree of evidence. From our point of view, in cases where theological and scientific discourses meet in a single space and operate with identical terms, the vectors of focusing on this space in secular sciences, on the one hand, and theology, on the other, are opposite to each other. The starting point for scientific thinking is the experience of the "givenness" of existing reality.

Based on the reality of such realities as "body", "personality", "organism", "psyche", "energy", etc., science tries to interpret mystical states. For theology, however, the realities that biology, psychology, physics and other sciences deal with are regarded not as a starting point, but on the contrary – as the final result of the previous destructive devolution process of the disintegration of some more primordial reality. As V. Lossky writes, "for Eastern theology, "pure nature" is a philosophical fiction that does not correspond either to the primordial state of the creature, nor to its present "anti-natural" state, nor to its feminine state of the future century" ^{[45, p. 187]}.

Clearly and succinctly, the opposite of the focus of the eyes of theology and natural science can be illustrated in the words of one of the physicists, who answered the question about the reason for the expansion of the Universe with a joke in the spirit of the philosophical theme of "the death of God". They say the universe is expanding because God has turned away from the world. So the world is crumbling! In other words, what from one point of view looks like the evolution of the Universe, from another point of view – as its devolution: falling away from God. The mind's eye of science is retrospective: the devolution processes of continuing falling away from God in science are seen as the evolution of reality. The appearance in nature of the laws of nature, which natural science reveals, from a theological point of view can be regarded only as the result of a destructive process of weakening the original energies of creation.

There is a very interesting archetype, which, being an invariant of mythological consciousness, finds echoes in the philosophy of the XX–XIX centuries (Z. Freud, J. Baudrillard). In the structures of repetition and symmetry (which, we note, constitute the quintessence of the laws of nature as such), the seal of death is seen. The living logos of creation, as the world falls away from God, are replaced by dead laws: the laws of physics, biology, etc. Let us add that not only Christianity, but also any traditional sacred doctrine sees the existing reality as the result not of a constructive/evolutionary, but on the contrary, as the result of a destructive/devolution process of removal from the origins of creation (for example: Yuga – the epoch of cosmic cycles in Hinduism). Nevertheless, the Christian version of destructive changes here has a specificity in that it connects them not with the "natural" devolution of the created cosmos, but with the volitional act of the fall of man.

The contrast we have identified in the focus of theology, on the one hand, and secular sciences, on the other, nevertheless allows us to build a single space of discourses within which it is possible to discuss the problem of the nature of religious and mystical experience in the context of altered states of consciousness from new positions. After all, differences brought to the opposite have an advantage over "swarming differences" (the term Zh. Deleuze) in that they are placed in a single space.

2. Inversions in the focus of the gaze: secular sciences, theology, neo-mysticism

The revealed contrast in the focus of the eyes of theology and secular sciences has much more radical implications than just abstract theoretical interest.

The philosophy of postpositivism, according to P. Feyerabend, compared science with the "religion of the twentieth century." Drawing a parallel between science and religion, P. Feyerabend meant that the foundation of science consists of certain meta-premises, which, as such, are unprovable. For this reason, like religious dogmas, they are uncritically accepted on faith by the scientific community. Meanwhile, it is possible to identify a more radical and even, one might say, sinister meaning of this statement. Science is truly turning into a kind of "new religion", as various forms of occultism and neo-mysticism begin to look for support in scientific concepts.

Neo-mystical and occult trends, schools and sects competing with traditional religiosity arise in abundance in parallel with the flourishing of certain scientific paradigms. Among these are, first of all, evolutionism (respectively, R. Steiner's anthroposophy, E. Blavatsky's theosophy) and the quantum–mechanical paradigm, which is seen as a platform for the synthesis of: a) ultramodern science with the archetraditional teachings of the Ancient East (D. Bohm, F. Capra) and b) concepts of physics with the psychology of altered states of consciousness (parapsychology, transpersonal psychology). A distinctive feature of occultism, mysticism and spiritualism with the prefix "neo" is an orientation towards synthesis with natural science and an attempt to give a single "scientific" explanation of all kinds of "paranormal" abilities, as well as phenomena of mystical experience and religious miracles. From the point of view of traditional sacred doctrines, all such neo-mystical and occult trends are regarded as a counterinitiation (R. Guenon), which reverses the essence, meaning, values, symbols and all other landmarks of traditional religions.

Let us consider examples of inversions in the points of visibility, or focusing of the gaze, which takes place where secular sciences apparently use the same terminology as theology.

2.1. Examples of inversion. The concept of "spirit" and "spiritual". An example of inversion is the substitution of the concepts of "spirit" and "spiritual" in modern secular consciousness. In conversations about "spirituality", which have become a kind of cliche of modern culture, there is a substitution of spiritual with spiritual. This substitution is characteristic of the fallen state of man (see above), but is taken by the secular consciousness as the initial "given" of human existence. In the same place where we are talking about "spiritual values" (another cliche of modern cultural discourse), an analogy is appropriate with the well-known arguments of M. Heidegger, who stated that in modern philosophy there is a "transformation of being into value", which is characteristic of the era of "oblivion of being". Similarly, the value discourse in relation to the spiritual testifies to the oblivion and substitution of the authentic meaning of the Christian concept of "Spirit".

At its limit, such "spirituality" (still very, very implicitly) is directed to the pole opposite to traditional religions: to a certain dark sacredness, because it often rises to the shield with the ideology of modern neo-Nazism. In the mainstream of modern totalitarianism, there is a much more radical substitution of the concept of "spirit" than the substitution of the general cultural cliche of "spiritual values". This is an occult substitution of the spirit by the "spirit world", "astral world" and "subtle world" (this will be discussed later). It is worth recalling that the ideology of German fascism was inspired by neo-mystical and occult teachings. The same thing, although less clearly, characterizes the Bolshevik ideology. As A. writes Dvorkin, "the occult roots of German Nazism are hardly a secret for anyone today; from a number of publications in recent years we have learned a lot about the connection of the Bolsheviks with the Roerichs and other occult teachers and groups" ^{[55, p. 67]}. It can be argued that there is some deep connection between the totalitarian regimes of the XX–XXI centuries and the occult.

2.2. Examples of inversion. The relationship of soul and body. As already mentioned, within the framework of neo-mysticism and occultism, a kind of convergence is being made between mystical consciousness and science. Modern concepts of quantum physics (D. Bohm, F. Capra), which are connected with the discoveries of neurophysiology (K. Pribram), as well as with "advanced" concepts of psychology (S. Grof), claim to reinterpret traditional sacred concepts and teachings in the terminology of modern natural science.

The relationship between soul and body begins to be understood in terms of the relationship between corpuscular and wave properties of reality, which, from the point of view of a number of physicists, are inherent not only in micro- but also macro-objects. Louis de Broglie was the first to express this idea. D. Bohm develops this idea most radically in his concept of the universal hologram. The reality of "bodies" (i.e., the corpuscular form of macro objects) is presented here as a gradation of a series of more or less thin or dense projections of holographic matrices – a wave record of everything that was, is, will be and could have happened in other circumstances. According to the correspondence principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty (?x · ?P ? h; ?E · ?t ? h), in the mode of the particle is (relatively) a certain coordinate (?x and ?t), but lose the certainty of momentum and energy (?P and ?E). In the mode of the wave, on the contrary, momentum and energy are (relatively) defined, and the coordinate, localization in space and time, loses certainty.

It follows from this that the question of localization – the coordinate, both in space and in time – makes sense for consciousness only if consciousness is considered within the framework of corpuscular theory: then consciousness can be considered localized in the brain region. If consciousness is described within the framework of the wave theory, then the concept of localization loses its meaning. Then consciousness can be considered to reside not only outside the brain, but also outside the physical body (S. Grof).

The traditional concept of "soul" is interpreted here in terms of energy and field structures surrounding the physical body. Interestingly, in this capacity, the existence of not one, but a whole series of "souls" for each person is recognized: in the form of frequency layers of different levels. Each of them represents a projection of a holographic recording of a body image, but each subsequent one has a lower density than the previous one. There are parallels with the occult teaching about astral "subtle bodies". In this, one can also notice a certain similarity with archaic animism, which proceeded from the fact that each person has not one, but several "souls". Thus, it is very urgent to clarify the question of how the Christian concept of "soul" – the one that is given to a person in the singular – differs from the diverse energy structures, "subtle bodies", field substances, etc., which are abundantly recognized by modern science. Does the reality of wave holographic matrices bring us closer to the primordial divine logos, the energies of primordial creation, or, on the contrary, does it distance us from it?

It seems that the second rather than the first is true, because the "subtle" virtual worlds are obviously even more removed from the original energies than the ordinary world of our corporeality. As S. Khoruzhy writes, virtual reality is a "low cost of being", which belongs to the "minimal energy". The hypertrophy of the virtualistic worldview that takes place in the modern world is a symptom of the "energy decline of man and the world" ^{[56, p. 57]}. Thus, here the view of science is retrospective, since it takes as a starting point not the primordial reality, but a certain stage of destruction of the original reality.

2.3. Examples of inversion. The concept of personality. An example of inversion can also be the concept of "personality" in the discourse of secular human sciences. This example should be analyzed in more detail, because, as we have already noted earlier, the triad "hypostasis – personality – ego" is a kind of reference point, both in the theological and in the secular discursive space about man.

As discussed above, the image of God in man should be understood as the personal, hypostatic beginning of a human being. However, as V. Lossky notes, in the lexicon of antiquity there was no term for an adequate designation of a person, "because the Latin rersna and the Greek v denoted ... a face – mask of an impersonal being." Therefore, the church fathers replaced these terms with the word hypostasis, the meaning of which they completely melted down ^{[57, C. 469]}, compared with the Greek -. It is obvious that in the same way "hypostasis" has a specificity in comparison with the Latin term ego, "I", which later became established in the philosophical lexicon. As, however, with the term "personality" as such. For the word "personality", in contrast to the theological "hypostasis", has a taste of something intermediate between "Face" and "disguise". In the secular consciousness, the term "personality" is associated with the pronoun "I". As P. Florensky writes, spiritual practices of various religions forbid pronouncing the word Ya. "The appearance of the pronoun I in children's speech is the first breakthrough of original sin," and "in the spiritual realm I am a sign of charm" ^{[58, pp. 492-493]}.

We have already referred to V. Lossky's judgment that theology, at least the theology of the Eastern Church, regards the concept of "nature as such" as a philosophical fiction. The same applies to the concept of "personality as such". Fallen humanity is characterized by a "mixture of personality and nature", and "we do not know the personality, the human hypostasis in its true expression, free from any impurity" ^{[42, p. 203]}. What is now called a personality and is taken as a given – in fact turns out to be a personal, hypostatic beginning in a person in the mode of his fall. In this regard, the concept of "I" is very remarkable in J. Lacan, who, without knowing it, reproduces echoes of the Gnostic myth about the fall of man. Formation of the personality of J. Lacan correlates with the mirror stage in the child's development, i.e. when the child begins to recognize himself in the mirror. Thus, the one whom we call "I" is, in essence, connected with the world of the looking glass. In this regard, the Gnostic myth is interesting, in which the well-known story of the fall is interpreted as a capture by a mirror: a person saw his reflection in the waters of the lower elements and, captivated by his own reflection, fell into the lower nature, preferring its reflection to reality ^{[59, p. 158]}. So there was a trap-world, a prison-world, a looking–glass world, in which a person has been living ever since, taking this world for reality.

Thus, the "I" can be compared with a kind of looking-glass phantom of hypostatic being. In the one who is reflected in the mirror, the image of God is replaced by the figure of the "Other". The self–identity of the human personality in the philosophical concepts of the XX-XXI centuries is constituted within the framework of the relationship "I am Another". This is the theme of both French existentialism (J.P. Sartre) and structural psychoanalysis (J. Lacan). A person acquires "present existence" only under the gaze of Another (J.P. Sartre). We can talk about the beginning of personality formation when a child begins to recognize himself in the mirror. A child recognizes himself in the mirror when such a concept as "The Other" enters his consciousness (J. Lacan). "I" is a representative or, one might even say, an "implant" of the "Other" in my mind. The "I" is constituted by the views of "Others".

But the trouble is that this very Other, which is such a necessary condition for my self–identity, can also, in turn, acquire self-identity only by being reflected in the mirror of my consciousness - and in no other way. Hence the drama of relations with the Other: a game of mutual tricks, inevitably escalating into a war of existences (J.P. Sartre); the dissolution of reality in the game of mutual reflections and mutual references (J. P. Sartre). Lacan). There is a game of reflections and mutual reflections that leads nowhere. My "I" reflects my reflection in the consciousness of the Other, which, in turn, tries to be constituted only by reflecting in my consciousness. This is reminiscent of the techniques of Christmas divination, when with the help of two mirrors, a mirror corridor is built in which someone should appear. And this "someone" comes, of course, from the world of phantoms.

3. Mystical and neo-mystical experience in the spectrum of altered states of consciousnessThe very essence of our "I", as has been shown, involves a break with oneself and contains as an integral aspect a vector of continuous slipping from any stable position from "equality with oneself".

This leads to the inevitable "evolution of the self." But in a different focus of the eye, this can be interpreted as an inevitable "devolution of the self" in the direction of scattering, as in the example with the physical Universe, from which God turned away. The given "I", from which, as a starting point, the secular sciences of man proceed, is by no means the stability of a certain "normal" state. Rather, it resembles a short-term moment of hanging at a point of disequilibrium and an attempt to delay the breakdown along the trajectory of an inevitable fall. But the breakdown sooner or later takes place. Moreover, disruption is possible in opposite directions. It is interesting to draw an analogy with the spectrum here. Just as the visible part of the spectrum is located in the gap between the zones of infra- and ultra-oscillations, so being as a person hangs between the trajectories of disruption into altered states of consciousness, which can be designated, respectively, as modes of infra-personal and ultra-personal being.

3.1. The course of the infra-personal destruction of personality follows in the vector of the dissolving and spreading "I". In this part of the spectrum there are certain types of mystical states (both genuine and surrogate), as well as certain types of psychiatric disorders. The mystical states of the infra-personal type include various forms of mystical experience of "dissolution" (in Deity, in emptiness, in cosmic consciousness, etc.).

As traditional forms of mystical experience, one can specify: in Hinduism – "non–dual states of consciousness"; in Buddhism – being in Nirvana; in the mystical experience of Neoplatonists – a state of super-intelligent contemplation; in the mystical experience of Sufis - "the state of fan". In Christianity, the experience of this kind of experience is characteristic of the mystical tradition of Catholics, but not Orthodox. The most striking example of this is the mysticism of M. Eckhart, where the soul is united with God, returning from being to nothing: from what was created (being), to what everything was created from (nothing). Without in any way questioning the authenticity of these traditional forms of mystical experience, we still note their difference from Christian mysticism (to be more precise, from the Christian mysticism of the Eastern, not the Western Church).

As S. Khoruzhy writes, illumination with uncreated light in the practices of hesychasm does not lead to the dissolution of personality. On the contrary, the action of this Light actualizes that hypostatic (personal) principle in a person, which before that was only potential. In the theology of the Eastern Church, it is invariably emphasized that the formation (theosis) "preserves the identity of the human person, its identity and self-consciousness: a person does not remain the same, but remains himself" ^{[40, p. 128]}. As for the mystical experience of Protestants, within the framework of this religious denomination, with their thesis of "universal priesthood", it is generally quite difficult to distinguish traditional forms of mystical experiences from both neo-mysticism and surrogate forms.

A number of neo-mystical trends, schools and sects adjoin the vector of infra-personal processes. Here are numerous pseudo–Eastern sects, which at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries appear in abundance both in Europe and in Russia (the Society of Krishna Consciousness, Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga, the school of Osho Rajneesh, etc.). We also point to the movement called the "New Era" ("New Age"), which eclectically absorbs all neo-mystical and neo-occult trends, combining them with the "advanced" directions of modern psychology and modern natural science. The experience of various transpersonal experiences of dissolution is practiced here: in the "planetary", "extraplanetary" and "cosmic" consciousness, in the consciousness of the "Universal Mind", in the "supercosmic and metacosmic emptiness", etc. Without going into details, it is necessary to note one very characteristic feature of neo-mysticism, which distinguishes almost all of its trends and varieties from traditional mysticism. These are the practices of achieving mystical experiences according to the "accelerated course" programs, compared with the mystical practices of traditional sacred teachings. They are akin to the possibilities of "instant enlightenment". For now, we will confine ourselves to a simple statement of this very remarkable feature of neo-mysticism.

Along with mystical, infra-personal processes also have clinical aspects. These are various states of confused or floating consciousness in which a distinct experience of one's own "I" is lost. Professor of Psychiatry R. Fischer built a cartography of altered states of consciousness in gradation of degrees of sleep and wakefulness. In this cartography, the waking state of the "I" is taken as a reference point. Both the detached consciousness in the meditative experience and the everyday states of floating consciousness are attributed by him to the gradations of sleep. And acute schizophrenic disorder, catatonia, along with a state of mystical ecstasy, are attributed to gradations of super-waking states of consciousness ^{[60, p. 56]}.

3.2. The course of ultrapersonal transformation of personality goes in the vector of aggravation of personal consciousness. If self-awareness as a person is associated, as we have already mentioned, with a kind of break with oneself and distancing from oneself, then the strengthening of this state leads to a psychiatric disorder. But now it is no longer a disorder located in the pole of confused or near-sighted states of consciousness, but a disorder of the polar opposite pole. This is a schizophrenic type disorder, which in Fischer's cartography refers to states of super-wakefulness.

The point of view is expressed, according to which the symptoms of schizophrenia "can be considered as an enhancement of the types of experiences that we always have, but are not noticed as such" ^{[61, p. 200]}. For example, the famous psychiatrist R. Laing describes the picture of schizophrenia as follows. "In this position, the individual experiences his Self to a greater or lesser extent separated or detached from the body. The body feels more like an object among other objects in the world than the center of a person's own being. Instead of being the center of its true Self, the body feels like the center of a false Self, which the separated, disembodied "inner" "true" Self looks at with tenderness, surprise or, depending on the situation, with hatred" ^{[62, p. 91]}. But it is possible, once again, to notice that this distancing from oneself was at the origins of the appearance of the "I".

"Norm" and "pathology" here differ only in degree: in the first case, this gap is beyond the threshold of consciousness, and in the second – it comes out of the subthreshold state and enters the field of awareness. All this is done in line with the vector of a kind of evolution, and in a different focus – the devolution of humanity. Note that the terms introduced by the philosophy of poststructuralism, such as "schizoprocess" and "schizoanalysis", take this diagnosis beyond the framework of psychiatry and transform it into a kind of general cultural diagnosis of those processes in which the modern world is totally involved.

Like the infra-personal processes discussed above, ultrapersonal processes, in turn, have, along with clinical, also mystical aspects of their manifestation. If in the first case it is the mysticism of the dissolution of personality in the reality of the One, then in the second case it is the mysticism of the scattering of reality into a multitude of "others": spirits, souls, astral projections, persons and quasi–persons. The location of these, depending on the prevailing paradigm, is seen either in the depths of the human unconscious, or in the "subtle" world of the astral. Mysticism of this kind was widespread in the past (spiritualism, mediumism, obsession), and today it is revived in various kinds of neo-mystical and neo-occult movements. NLP psychotechnics (neuro-linguistic programming) are also in this row.

The founders of the latter – R. Bandler and D. Grinder – compared NLP with magical techniques of manipulating "spirits". Only these numerous "spirits" – quasi–persona - are now revealed in the depths of our unconscious. This series also includes astral projections, "travel" outside the body, where a person, staying in the "subtle" world, meets other diverse beings densely inhabiting the astral world (R. Monroe, S. Muldon). This also includes "channeling" – a kind of modernized spiritualism or entering into the state of a medium. In "channeling", the human personality becomes a channel through which the "ascended teachers" and other beings from the "subtle" world broadcast. All of the above is also represented in the New Age movement, which was discussed above. According to A. Dvorkin's definition, this movement today represents "a kind of analogue of the ecumenical movement in the occult environment" ^{[55, p. 706]}.

4. The problem of distinguishing the authentic and surrogate in the neomistic experienceLet us dwell in more detail on the analysis of modern practices of achieving mystical states according to the "accelerated course" programs.

Thus, in the experiments of S. Grof's transpersonal psychology, during the LSD sessions, all possible mystical experiences of pre-existing and existing religions were passed through, plus much more, starting from experiencing their past incarnations and meetings with ancestral spirits and ending with communication with "spiritual teachers", deities of various religions and other superhuman creatures. As an addition, we also point to the compression of consciousness to the consciousness of an organ, tissue, cell; expansion and fusion with the consciousness of all mankind, planetary and cosmic consciousness, and, finally, visiting other universes and communicating with the beings living there. During the experiments, a channel of various "paranormal" abilities was opened: telepathy, clairvoyance, healing, psychokinesis, etc. ^[63].

To explain all this simply by hallucinations would be a simplification of the essence of the matter. Firstly, because, as can be concluded from S. Grof's research, channels for obtaining new information were really opened in these states, which was quite verifiable. Secondly, as we have already noted, in modern cognitive science, both the concept of "reality" and the distinct demarcation between hallucinations and actual contact with "other" reality are blurred, from which, in the normal mode of consciousness, we are protected by effectively working perception filters ("cognitive niches", "cognitive immunity" systems, etc.).

In clinical conditions, access to the "other" reality is opened through the irreversible destruction of filtering mechanisms. In mystical states, namely those that are achieved according to the "accelerated program" within the framework of neo–mysticism practices - through the temporary blocking of these filters, including through LDS. Thus, the mechanism of accelerated achievement of mystical experiences in modern neo-mysticism is simple and destructive; and simple precisely in so far as it is destructive. This is due to the blocking of the filtering mechanisms of perception.

Due to the inversion of the view characteristic of modern consciousness, in the ideology of neo-mysticism of this kind, destructive processes are perceived as a new, higher stage in the evolution of mankind in the process of moving towards the era of the "New Era".

Strategies for the "accelerated" achievement of mystical experiences in modern neo-mysticism can be analyzed in line with one interesting archetype associated with a metaphorical series of clothing, dressing and undressing. This archetype is present both in the sacred symbolism of connection – separation with God, and in the non–classical philosophy of the XX-XXI centuries. For example, L. Wittgenstein, comparing language shells with the "clothes" of thought, performed a kind of thought experiment on "undressing thought" in order to see thought as such in its undisguised form. And what is the result? It is the same as when "undressing" an artichoke. From the thought, as well as from the artichoke after removing all the shells, nothing remains, – this is the conclusion of L. Wittgenstein. In the same vein , there is a well - known essay by Zh . Deleuze "Fold. Leibniz and the Baroque", as well as P. Valery's statement, often quoted in non–classical philosophy, that "the deepest thing in a person is the skin".

Despite the somewhat shocking and extravagant nature of these arguments, there are echoes of a deep sacred archetype in non-classical philosophy. In traditional sacred doctrines, union with God is not thought of in the metaphor of "undressing", but, on the contrary, in the metaphorical series of "vestments". The metaphor of undressing, on the contrary, is used in the symbolic series of a break, falling away from God. As P. Florensky notes, "the fall of sin – as the seduction of Divine grace – is constantly called in church hymns nudity, nakedness" ^{[64, p. 218]}. In Christianity, bodily shells are compared to the "clothes of the soul." And these shells, as already discussed, are a condition for "gathering oneself" into a hypostatic personal being, without which Communion with God is impossible.

Earlier we compared the perceptual apparatus with additional shells of the body, i.e. with a kind of "second skin". If the blocking of the perceptual apparatus in the neo-mystical experience can be compared with "undressing", "stripping", "taking off clothes", then the grace-filled experience in Christianity, on the contrary, is described in a metaphorical series of putting on new clothes. As P. Florensky notes, the sacrament of repentance in Orthodox prayers is compared with the acquisition of spiritual robes: "the robe of repentance." The acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit is described, again, in the metaphors of clothing: "we are clothed in the Holy Spirit." P. Florensky quotes the "Tablets", in which the grace-filled transformation of the senses and abilities of the soul is compared with the clothes that a priest puts on during divine service. "These five are the senses of the perfect body: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch; and the spiritual forces are five: mind, thought, opinion, dreaming and feeling ? the five are the sacred garments, in which the priest is clothed: surplice, stole, belt, commission and felony. In comparison with the consecration of sacred garments, they also sanctify the five human senses and the first spiritual forces" [Cit. according to: 64, C. 216].

However, so far we have been talking only about those sacred traditions in which mystical experience is carried out in the form of existential communication between God and man, and not dissolution into an impersonal Absolute. Nevertheless, we dare to assert that "instant enlightenment" according to the programs of the "accelerated course of exposure from clothes" is a surrogate not only for Christian mysticism, but also for the traditional mysticism of dissolution, for example, for Hinduism and Buddhism. Let us formulate the following statement: in the spectrum of states of consciousness there is a range in which points of exit to a genuine mystical experience can appear. And getting out of another range of states, which may even be very similar to mystical states, is no longer possible.

In our metaphor of the spectrum, this can be compared to the visible frequency range, in which a certain "point of visibility" opens, making possible the path of connection with God (in Orthodox terminology, the possibility of a synergistic connection), whereas in the "infra" and "ultra" ranges, the possibility of reaching the "point of visibility" either overlaps or is extremely difficult. This statement is true not only for Christianity, where the "point of visibility" opens from a state of stable disequilibrium of personal (hypostatic) being, but also for the mysticism of dissolution.

For example, in Buddhism it is believed that the achievement of Nirvana is possible only from some states (and, accordingly, from some worlds of the Buddhist psychocosm), which is almost impossible from others. Thus, the achievement of nirvana is possible from the human state (the world of people) and is practically impossible, for example, from the state of preta (restless spirits) or from the state of an animal. The most interesting thing here is that the achievement of nirvana overlaps not only for the lower, but also for higher worlds and, accordingly, more advanced states than the human condition. These include, for example, the state of God (the world of forms) or the world of pure states of consciousness, referred to in Buddhism as the world of non-forms. These states are achieved by advanced yogis, not Buddhists. But all these are traps that do not bring closer, but, on the contrary, lead away from the possibility of achieving Nirvana. Therefore, incarnation both in the world of Gods and in the world of non-forms in Buddhism "is considered as unfavorable as birth in hell" ^{[65, p. 42]}.

Something similar can be said about neomysticism. Mystical experiences of this kind should be attributed to surrogate. However, not in the sense that they are just subjective psychological experiences (the fact that they are not reduced to such is quite convincingly justified in S. Grof's research). And in the sense that the "advanced" states here do not open, but on the contrary, block the possibility of a genuine mystical experience, leading to the quantum-mechanical realities of holographic matrices, field structures, virtual and other "subtle" worlds. For all these "subtle" field structures, as has already been noted, represent an even greater distance from the original logos of Creation than the reality of "ordinary" things.

In connection with the above, it is worth, once again, referring to V. Lossky's judgments quoted above that we do not know either "nature as such" or "personality as such", (continuing this series, we can add: also "energy", "reality" as such, etc.), – outside of their fallen state, which is taken as a starting point by the secular consciousness. Continuing this thought, we can say that in this situation it is only possible to indicate a certain range in the spectrum of states of consciousness, from which a way out of the false reality of our world to another authentic reality can open. And in this respect, the archetype of the topos of the gap in which this exit opens is very remarkable. For example, in Buddhism, it is a human condition that is placed in the gap between the lower (animal, preta) and higher (Gods) states of the samsaric psychocosm. In Christianity, the topos of the gap is revealed through a state of "spiritual sobriety", which is equally far from such extremes as indulgence of carnal passions, on the one hand, and exalted immoderation in the asceticism of mortification of the flesh, on the other. In our metaphor, this is a gap in the spectrum of stable disequilibrium between the "advanced" states of infra-personal and ultra-personal destruction of personality.

 Conclusion

The analysis of the topic under study allowed us to formulate the following conclusions.

1. An attempt to find a common space of the discourse of psychology and cognitive sciences, on the one hand, with the discourse of theology, on the other, leads to the following conclusion. In particular, dealing, apparently, with the same subject of research, designated by identical terms (spirit, personality, psyche-soul, body, organism), theology and secular sciences see it, nevertheless, in the opposite focus of the gaze. What are the starting point for biology, psychology, physics, etc., in theology are regarded as an abnormal state and the result of a destructive process of descent of some primordial reality.

2. Science is turning into a kind of "new religion", as various forms of occultism and neo-mysticism begin to look for support in scientific concepts. Neo-mystical and occult trends, schools and sects competing with traditional religiosity arise in abundance in parallel with the flourishing of certain scientific paradigms. First of all, such as evolutionism and the quantum mechanical paradigm. Due to the inversion of the view characteristic of modern consciousness, in the ideology of neo-mysticism, destructive processes are perceived as a new, higher stage in the evolution of mankind.

3. In the spectrum of altered states of consciousness, it is necessary to distinguish: 1) infra-personal processes, which are characterized by a vector of dissolving and spreading "I".They correspond to both mystical (dissolution in the Deity, in the void, in cosmic consciousness, etc.) and clinical states (confused or floating consciousness). 2) Ultrapersonal processes taking place in the vector of dissemination of personal consciousness. They also correspond to both mystical (the scattering of reality into many spirits, souls, astral projections and quasi-persona) and clinical conditions (schizophrenic type disorders).

4. In the spectrum of altered states of consciousness, there is a range from which an exit from the reality of our world to another authentic reality can open. In this respect, the archetype of the topos of the gap in which this exit opens is very remarkable. In the altered states characteristic of neomysticism, both infra-personal and ultra-personal states take place. The mechanism of accelerated achievement of mystical experiences in neo-Mysticism is simple due to its destructive nature.